The Cafe / House se...
 

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The Cafe / House selling tea and cake halfway around the Beast at Coed Y Brenin?

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Is it still there? I know it was bought and sold a couple of times over the last 15 years or so but I’m planning a ride taking in some of the trails at Coed and wondered if this was a viable rest stop in lieu of the closed Visitor Centre or simply pushing on to Dolgellau?


 
Posted : 24/06/2025 5:20 pm
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I think that closed ages ago but only from memory of another thread on here.  


 
Posted : 25/06/2025 5:11 pm
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Do you mean the Ugly House ?


 
Posted : 25/06/2025 7:58 pm
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Yeah, that's definitely closed. 

 

Shame too, was nicer than the actual cafe 😂

 


 
Posted : 25/06/2025 8:03 pm
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  • Do you mean the Ugly House ?

I don't think he does, but happy to be corrected.

I think he means the Cafe / House selling tea and cake halfway around the Beast. Ie just after a nice bit of singletrack and before the shortcut past the PFOP.

I've not been past for ages, but last time it was closed to the extent you'd never have believed there was ever a cafe there.


 
Posted : 25/06/2025 8:57 pm
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Thanks for the replies, it’s a shame it’s gone as I agree it was far better than the trail centre cafe. 

There must be money to be made having a mobile coffee van parked in the Trail Centre carpark, at least on Fridays and weekends? I assume there’s nothing going up there aside from the gels / Clif bars sold in Beics Brenin?

 

It’s a shame to see things wind down up there, but I do think its a reflection of the shift in the sport we’ve seen over the last decade which has been accelerated by e-bikes. I’m doing a gravel ride taking in bits of the centre rather than using it as an mtb venue, but I do sometimes romanticise the idea of a lap of MBR on my old Five. 


 
Posted : 25/06/2025 9:53 pm
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it hasn't been open for a few years now, you can sit at the tables and eat your own picnic though


 
Posted : 26/06/2025 7:08 am
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I rode past it 2 weeks ago. Looks like a private dwelling now.

 

 


 
Posted : 26/06/2025 8:47 am
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Its just a house now. Nice spot though.


 
Posted : 26/06/2025 11:03 am
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Fwiw, there is a coffee trailer thing in the car park at NyA now.


 
Posted : 26/06/2025 11:40 am
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When we passed through a week and a half ago there was nothing available food or drink. We speculated whether the bike shop might not massively increase footfall if they sold mars bars and cans of pop.

Toilets were open though.

When riding theTraws Eryri route there was no shop, cafe or pub between the Mawddach Bridge (a pub at the S. End) and the village shop in Traws which is friendly, has a coffee machine and is pretty well stocked with flapjack, sandwiches etc.


 
Posted : 26/06/2025 12:34 pm
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There must be money to be made having a mobile coffee van parked in the Trail Centre carpark

Much like the cafe at C-Y-B and the cafe half way round, neither have had much success, so why would a mobile one work any better? Didn't someone convert a double decker bus and have great success at a Scottish trail centre, until the trail centre opened they own cafe, and told the bus to do one (vague memories of a post, I never saw it)

 

PS: We were at C-Y-B the weekend before last on the sunday, the car park was busier with campervans, taking advantage of the free parking, than MTB-ers 


 
Posted : 26/06/2025 12:57 pm
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Whats the deal with CyB now then? Big cafe at the visitor centre shut and free car parking? Might go over for a days riding...


 
Posted : 30/06/2025 10:50 am
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Do you mean the Ugly House ?

That's the little café just off the trail at Gwydir (formerly Marin).

Last time I rode past the CyB one, the house had been completely revamped and there were a pair of Range Rovers parked outside IIRC


 
Posted : 30/06/2025 11:03 am

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